Dominant language constellations approach in education and language acquisition, edited by Larissa Aronin and Eva Vetter

Abstract

Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) is a collection of one’s most significant languages that works as a single entity and enables a person to fulfill all of their demands in a multilingual setting (Aronin, 2006). DLC is similar to a language repertoire but differs in that it is selective and only comprises the languages or language abilities most relevant to an individual or a group’s communicative functioning at a particular moment and in a specific situation (Bianco & Aronin, 2020). The DLC notion is solely interested in the active languages that stand out as being of primary importance and serving as the means of communication for that person’s everyday activities, businesses, careers, and self-expression (Aronin, 2016). As an analytical concept of multilingual studies, DLC has been used to study the impact of multilingualism in language education. Dominant Language Constellations Approach in Education and Language Acquisition, edited by Larissa Aronin and Eva Vetter, describes the use of DLC to investigate how multilingualism affects language education from multiple perspectives. This volume presents original research on language education policy and practice, focusing on current DLCinformed multilingualism in family settings and institutional domains such as teacher education, primary and secondary schools, and higher education. The edited volume starts with an introductory chapter by Joseph Lo Bianco, a leading scholar in research on the intersection of DLC, multilingualism, and language education. According to Bianco, DLC provides new theoretical approaches and analytical methodologies within a broad multilingual field of study. DLC emerged as an innovation in multilingual studies and the theory of problematizing one of the most enduring cultural and political heritages: the belief that human groups are naturally, or most effectively, described as monolingual. The pinnacle of monolingualism is imagined in standardized language literacy that typically conveys the national character of the groups that make up the nation, its history and destiny, canonical literature, and collective identity. According to Bianco, DLC gives a viewpoint on how languages are taught and the relationship between all the languages that students are exposed to outside the classroom. The DLC notion also enables educators and researchers to consider the many different ways that multilingualism affects education. For example, one benefit of DLC is that it clarifies how literacy instruction should be conducted in multilingual classrooms with students who may have literacy traditions that differ significantly from the required curriculum. After Bianco’s introductory chapter, the other ten chapters are divided into three parts. Part I, entitled “Dominant Language Constellations in Language Education Policy and School Practices,” comprises papers describing various DLCs in official and institutional settings, such as schools and language education policies. The first chapter draws on complexity theory and various social and